Smoked Cheese time in TN

As the holidays approach, I decided it was time to smoke some more cheese. This will be the first of several batches. I purchased the cheese from Sams, and they were variety packs of three different types of cheddar. It came with a standard Sharp Cheddar, the Vermont Sharp White, which I prefer and new type called Aged Reserve which was also a white cheddar.

I used the standard cold smoking method that I use that can be found under the Cheese tab on the top of the page. I used oak pellets in a smoking tube and set it up. It was only 41 degrees today, so I did not even use any ice in the water pan to keep the cheese from melting.

I waited and waited for the smoke to stop, but it went almost 5 hours before I removed it. At this point all of the cheese was yellow from the smoke.

As usual, I let it rest before sealing and labeling the cheese. It will now rest for a minimum of 3 weeks before I will try it. The smoke is overwhelming right after smoking it, and this process helps it mellow and get absorbed throughout the block of cheese